Journal
LIFE SCIENCE ALLIANCE
Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
LIFE SCIENCE ALLIANCE LLC
DOI: 10.26508/lsa.202000889
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) [R33NS095139]
- CureSMA
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Researchers established a tunable model of mild and moderate SMA using a splicing compound, demonstrating prevention of severe SMA phenotype and phenotypic recovery when administered on day eight.
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a motor neuron disease and the leading genetic cause of infant mortality. SMA results from insufficient survival motor neuron (SMN) protein due to alternative splicing. Antisense oligonucleotides, gene therapy and splicing modifiers recently received FDA approval. Although severe SMA transgenic mouse models have been beneficial for testing therapeutic efficacy, models mimicking milder cases that manifest post-infancy have proven challenging to develop. We established a titratable model of mild and moderate SMA using the splicing compound NVS-SM2. Administration for 30 d prevented development of the SMA phenotype in severe SMA mice, which typically show rapid weakness and succumb by postnatal day 11. Furthermore, administration at day eight resulted in phenotypic recovery. Remarkably, acute dosing limited to the first 3 d of life significantly enhanced survival in two severe SMA mice models, easing the burden on neonates and demonstrating the compound as suitable for evaluation of follow-on therapies without potential drug-drug interactions. This pharmacologically tunable SMA model represents a useful tool to investigate cellular and molecular pathogenesis at different stages of disease.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available